Juha Ilari Uitto

Juha Uitto is the former Director of the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) of the Global Environment Facility (2014-2024). He has worked as an evaluator with the GEF and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) since 1999, including as Deputy Director of the UNDP IEO from 2009 to 2014. He has conducted and managed many programmatic and thematic evaluations of international cooperation at the global, regional and country levels, in particular related to environmental management and poverty-environment linkages. He served as the Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) from 2009 to 2012 and again in 2014.

Juha's entire career has focused on environment and development, with earlier positions at the United Nations University (UNU), Nordic Africa Institute, and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). He has worked as consultant in the field and held visiting positions at Rutgers University and Kyoto University. He was educated at the Universities of Helsinki and Lund, and holds a PhD in Social and Economic Geography.